Jersey City taxi drivers express fears of crime after co-worker is shot in head by a rider

The Jersey City taxi driving community was in shock yesterday in the aftermath of the shooting that has left a 42-year-old driver in critical condition.

Colleagues who know the shooting victim from waiting for passengers together at the Journal Square taxi stand said yesterday the 42-year-old is single and described him as “nice” and “quiet.”

Mike Mank, a dispatcher for AA Taxi & Limo Service, said he knows the driver as a fellow parishioner at the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. Mark on West Side Avenue. “He is a very decent man, a very good man,” Mank said of the driver, whom police have not identified.

The chilling news served as a reminder that taxi drivers place themselves in extremely vulnerable situations.

Alberto Sappietro of Jersey City, who’s been driving a yellow cab for a year, said he is at the “mercy” of whoever hops into his back seat.

“We struggle seven days a week to come up with money to live,” Sappietro said. “Sometimes we are blind to safety to make the extra dollar.”

Azheer Babar, 50, who has been driving a cab for five years, said yesterday he finds the work too dangerous to work at night.

Drivers are prohibited from refusing to pick up a customer, no matter the doubts a driver might have about that person, said King Taxi dispatcher Peter Hanna.

“There should be a way for a driver to refuse service when he has doubts,” he said.

Drivers said yesterday that the Journal Square stand needs bright lights, and cameras to record passengers entering the cabs, and a police officer posted around the clock to protect drivers.

“It’s not an easy job out there,” said Hanna. “There’s crime in Jersey City. There’s no hiding it.”